ON MY MIND With

THE word ‘sleaze’ is a literary gem. It not only phonetically sounds like the grubby sordid behaviour it describes but also is a sanitising cover for some really morally objectionable activities.

Although UK politics has now become a mud-slinging pastime by an eclectic mix of highly intelligent, intellectually limited, genuine, cynical, egotistical, humble, self-seeking and community serving members of parliament, some have long happily waded around in the mire.

Strangely, ‘cash’ has always been central in the allegations – cash for questions, cash for influence, cash for lobbying, cash for peerage and cash for PPE.

Sometimes called the ‘inappropriate use of clientilism’, sleaze was a Major feature in the 1990s when John’s government was, allegedly, wrapped up in little brown paper envelopes and foreign holidays which led to the resignation of two ministers and the jailing of a third for perjury, the latter claiming to wield the “simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of fair play”.

The 2009 MPS’ expenses scandal left a bad taste in the mouth but a nice smell of paint in the lounge and fertiliser on the lawn from tax payers’ money as well as the infamous duck house. Some MPS resigned, some were sacked and some went to prison.

The more recent ‘high priority lane’ for PPE procurement would have made even Private Walker blush. Last week Private Eye published a list of fat cats who got the cream. The figures are so startling that the mag called it, in the context of profiteering and cronyism, “the greatest waste of public money… in modern British history”.

As the second job debate continues in Westminster, one Welsh MP is reported to have three ‘second jobs’ in addition to his MP role earning an additional £60,000; another is a qualified nurse who worked 61 hours of shifts at a hospital and donated her earnings to charity. Unless it is to maintain a professional registration, no MP should have a second job. Any other arrangement will only encourage the growing religious affiliation of MPS to the much-loved ‘spirit of St Loophole’.

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